Sustainability statement:
We try and grow as ethically and responsibly as possible, but are by no means perfect. It's difficult to convey our practices, through simple statements such as "chemical free", "plastic free" and so on...so we have put a very brief piece of information together, to better inform.
Use of plastics and packaging: We use the term "plastic free" in some of our wording. This primarily relates to single use packaging, of the sort you typically associate with supermarket produce. We do not use plastics in our packaging, with the very occasional exception of bio-degradable bags (e.g. covering strawberries). We do, however, use plastics on the farm such as - the poly-tunnel, the insect netting, hose pipes and weed membrane. These all help us to run the farm, and also significantly mitigate against pests and diseases in a way that avoids the use of chemical insecticides and fungicides. We reuse these over many years, and are not "single use". In terms of other packaging, we try and keep this to an absolute minimum, and encourage the return of card punnets etc for reuse.
Use of chemicals: We use the term "chemical free" as we are not certified organic (this is a long process we are looking into). As is the case with organic farms, there is a recognition that the total elimination of chemicals is difficult and often unachievable. Chemicals are in many objects, and are also in the natural environment. We use the term to convey the fact we don't deliberately spray or apply in any way synthetic chemical fertilisers, pesticides and herbicides. Therefore, we are confident chemicals in general, are evident in significantly less quantities than produce that has been grown using deliberately applied chemicals (generally most non-organic produce commercially available).
Food distribution: We sometimes refer to food miles, and generally reference the fact we supply local outlets, such as the Spar (2.5 miles). We have recently transitioned to nationwide delivery for our garlic bulbs, via the Royal Mail network. Royal Mail has an existing network of delivery routes that we tap into - and you can read their sustainability plan here:
Overall, we feel this model of food production has many ecological benefits, not least when the wider practices of "no dig" soil management and poly-culture growing techniques are taken into account. We really hope you balance all of this when you consider buying our food. Thanks so much for reading.